RE: [WinMac] Re: E-Mail System Research

Curtis Wilcox(cwcx[at]uhura.cc.rochester.edu)
Thu, 08 Oct 1998 16:56:19 -0400

At 05:59 AM 10/8/98 -0600, Landis Arnold wrote:
>It is not exactly LDAP. However, the system mechanism you describe is very
>much part of the structure of "First Class Internet Mail." We use First
>Class 3.5 which I assume to be virtually identical in this regard to the
>new version 5.5. Anyway, what one can do to have "universal" addresses' is
>to assign "mail lists" with one member's email address to the shared "mail
>list" folder. The list needs to then be named w/ the something to identify
>the recipient (or recipients if it is a multi person list)... Anyone then
>on the system can send mail to that person simply by typing in the first
>few letters of their name.

Wow, First Class, I hadn't thought about that. I'm attending distance
learning classes which use First Class as the main communication tool. You
couldn't ask for anything better in an addressing system. However it has a
few drawbacks. Here are some humble opinions:

Proprietary
The whole thing is proprietary so you're pretty much stuck using either the
First Class client on each computer (with some exceptions like BulkRate) or
a command line interface ::shudder::. Its mail system is proprietary so
you're dealing with a gateway for all the mail. It usually works well but
it can be a source of problems, particularly sending attachments to the
internet. The address book is proprietary so you cann't use a different
client for that or synch it with other directory systems (like LDAP).

Live connections/supportable load
You can use First Class in a go online, upload mail, download mail, go
offline way but that's not really compatible with the "live addressbook"
you conceive of. That means up to 500 simultaneous connections to the First
Class server for extended periods of time. I'm not sure it can handle that
kind of load and I don't know that it can be clustered. If they measure
loads in kilobytes (of server RAM) per user online it's probably doable if
they measure it in megabytes, that's trouble.

Reliability
It's just not as stable as many SMTP/POP or IMAP options but if you don't
require 24/7 uptime, that may not be an issue. Some people complain about
the stability of this or that product but if you have from 6pm 'til 6am the
next day to work on it, as far as the user is concerned the system may
never be down.

On the plus side:
The Mac & Win software are very very similar.
You can do forms and all kinds of nice looking messaging internally (fonts,
colors, etc.).
The interface has some quirks but in general it's very natural for a GUI user.
It was/is a BBS so you can set up conference areas with message threading
for different groups, file downloading areas, and live text chatting (which
can really be a productive tool).
Actually there may be a way around using the First Class client software. I
heard there's a web interface in beta which would be really strange but
potentially useful especially if it doesn't require plugins or Java.
Again because if its BBS roots, for off-campus use you can set it up with a
modem pool and have people dial in directly to the server or use it over
TCP/IP through a PPP connection (naturally you'd use TCP/IP on campus).
Like IMAP everything is kept on the server side (primarily) so people can
log in from any computer and use all their own stuff.
I wouldn't be surprise if SoftArc has a calendaring component but I haven't
seen it.
You only pay by the number of simultaneous connections so if the go
online/go offline method works it could be pretty economical.

I think I'm in the SMTP/IMAP/LDAP camp. If you've got the expertise you can
piece it together on a UNIX system or buy it put together by Netscape.
Netscape has it's problems but so much of what they do follows (or even
leads) internet standards that it's much easier to go to someone else for
pieces or the whole thing if you switch later. Start planning now for how
you'll go from this system to the next one.

-- 
Curtis Wilcox           cwcx@cc.rochester.edu
Desktop Systems Consultant       716/274-1160
Eastman School of Music       Pager: x12-3290


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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Thu Oct 08 1998 - 14:14:18 PDT